Thwarting Plans

In my devotions currently I am reading through the Psalms. This morning I came across Psalm 33:10 – 11, “The Lord foils the plans of the nations; He thwarts the purposes of the people. But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations. ” I’ve read these verses before, many times, and they encourage me that God’s plans will come to fruition. Yet today they struck me in a new way.

Christians often exhort one another to pray that God’s purposes will be fulfilled in our nation and in the lives of our family and friends. And we should. Our nation needs to turn our collective hearts back to serving God–the one true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Christians across our nation pray that our leaders will seek God’s guidance in decision-making, that our nation will repent of its sins, and that we will acknowledge our dependence on God.

Yet, Psalm 33:10 encourages us to do more. It tells us that God will thwart the plans of those who oppose Him. It says to me that I should pray deliberately for the plans of those who do not honor the Lord to fail. I should pray not only for Congress to pass laws that are in keeping with God’s commands, but I should actively pray for the failure of bills that don’t agree with God’s word. I should pray for our President to make decisions that honor God and to be dissuaded from decisions that do not honor God.

On the one hand, this differentiation might seem like mere semantics. However, as I see it, praying for the failure of those whose who purposes are not in line with God’s will puts me on the offensive. Many Christians in America are very passive concerning the government. We pray as Christ taught us through the Lord’s prayer, “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6: 9, 10) We feel that we have done our part by praying for God’s will to be done, and we sit back and watch our nation move further and further from God.

The time has come for Christians to actively pray against the forces that are driving our nation from God. We need to pray for God’s will to be done and we must pray for the plans of those whose purposes are not godly to be thwarted. Our God is strong and mighty; He is fully capable of ‘foiling the plans of the nations’ and causing His plans and purposes to be achieved, if we ask Him.

I encourage you today to go on the offensive. Begin to pray for God’s will to be done and for God to thwart the plans of those who oppose Him. If Christians across this nation do so, I believe American can still be a nation under God.